Enfield Town FC

Report

Northwood 1-2 Enfield Town  

Town Into Last Four
Report by Martin Bentley

It was hellishly cold, and the football was, for the most part, not pretty.

But Enfield Town successfully negotiated a tricky Middlesex Senior Cup tie at Northwood to secure their passage into the semi-finals.

Town fielded a much-changed side, and gave competitive debuts to Tom Payne and Lucas Jordan.

They started off at a gallop, taking the lead after only four minutes, Jake Cass driving a close range effort past home keeper Andrew McCorkell at his near post (pictured).

Northwood were also looking threatening in the early stages, and debutant Parris Mason levelled after 20 minutes with a smart close range finish.

The remainder of the half was largely uneventful, although the home side had a decent-looking penalty shout when Sandro Costa went down under Jon Muleba’s challenge.

Town then regained the lead after 38 minutes with a goal from Lyle Della-Verde that trod that fine line between genius and fluke (this writer, for the record, favours the former option).

The Town winger received the ball on the right from Lewis Taaffe and curled a brilliant/lucky effort over the scrambling McCorkell and into the far corner of the net.

A lively second half was notable only for the almost complete lack of shots on goal. For Town, Jordan had an effort ruled out for offside, Cass was denied by McCorkell when put through on goal, and Taaffe pinged a 25 yarder deep into the cemetery behind the goal.

The home side threatened frequently from wide areas, but the Town defence coped well with a string of accurately delivered crosses and corners and held on for the win, the relieved travelling faithful trooping off in search of somewhere a bit warmer.

Town: McDonald, Muleba, Joe Payne, Tom Payne (Youngs 78), Braithwaite, Okotcha, Taaffe, Dayton (Isaac 65), Cass, Jordan (Coker 74), Della-Verde.

Unused subs: Richmond, Wyllie